Tintagel

Following a brief suspension of the Experimental Handicap in 1934 due to the retirement of Walter Vosburgh (several outlets did publish their own unofficial rankings), the rankings resumed in 1935 under new Jockey Club handicapper Jack Campbell and have continued uninterrupted to the present day.

“Horsemen of thoroughbred persuasion, as well as lovers of racing, are looking forward to Jack Campbell’s Experimental Handicap for our two-year-olds, which is likely to be published shortly in “The Racing Calendar.”

It will be the official handicapper’s rating of the juveniles of 1935 along the lines of the Free Handicap in England. Walter S. Vosburgh instituted the Experimental Handicap in this country three or four years ago after a number of us had been pleading for it over a stretch of time.

It has been a distinct value for those who like to confirm their own figures, or, in any case, have a means for comparison, while a rating always is popular with the enthusiasts of any sport. The Experimental Handicap is more eagerly anticipated than usual this season because the two-year-olds have been so evenly matched, with no actual standout.

With only three or four stakes of prominence to be run before the season ends in the North, no changes of any importance in the present rating are likely. One, of course, must have the honor, always a questionable one, of heading the list at top weight, and it will be interesting to know on which one Jack Campbell places this distinction. So far as can be judged, there are at least six candidates for the place.

Lester Doctor expressed the opinion on Friday that J. E. Widener’s Brevity was the best, in his opinion, on his brilliant race in the Champagne Stakes, when he beat the Wheatley Stable’s Snark a head. His guess, no doubt, is as good as any, even though Brevity started only three times.

“Jack Campbell, official handicapper of The Jockey Club, puts C. V. Whitney’s Red Rain in the proud place at the top in his Experimental Handicap for two-year-olds of the season just closed.

The New York Times, 12/16/1935.

This handicap, which corresponds to the Free Handicap of England, is published in the current issue of “The Racing Calendar,” official organ of the turf’s governing body. Campbell assigns 126 pounds to Red Rain and thereby rates him as the best of his age in training this year.

As a further indication of the evenness of the juveniles of 1935, four two-year-olds are rated two pounds away from Red Rain at 124 each. These are Marshall Field’s Tintagel, winner of The Futurity; Hal Price Headley’s Hollyrood, winner of the Pimlico Futurity; Bomar Stable’s Grand Slam, that beat Tintagel in the Arlington Futurity; and Coldstream Stud’s Coldstream, that ran a dead heat with Red Rain in the Saratoga Special of six furlongs at Saratoga Springs early last August.

Campbell’s ratings of ninety-nine two-year-olds of both sexes are of particular interest to all followers of thoroughbred racing, chiefly as a barometer of that expert opinion which may guide respective owners and trainers of the juveniles involved through the treacherous three-year-old racing seas of 1936. …” (W. J. Macbeth / New York Herald Tribune, 12/16/1935)